The Shoutbox
Blib, you could probably start from Season 3 (which will air in September or so, I'm guessing) and be fine, but the miniseries all the way up to last week's episode is of such phenomenal quality that you'd be doing yourself a disfavor to miss out on it.

Between the miniseries (as two parts), season 1 and season 2 (which concludes this Friday in the States) there are only 37, 42 minute long episodes. You'd easily be able to catch up by the time 3 comes around. But I guarantee once you get into it, you'll kill off all 37 eps in no more than a fortnight.
as far as the user CP...Yoda said he turned the rep system off for now, that's why there's nothing there.
OG, can i start watching Battlestar just at the beginning of the new series? Or will i need to have background knowledge of the old stuff? Coz im looking for some gripping stuff to watch each night now ive finished Taken.

Also, this may have been discussed but can anyone access their User CP? I can't.
I really don't see any difference in speed. Glad to hear about faster response times for the other users. This means I'll get replies faster.
It's not a big deal, especially since the logins and stuff are so danged FAST now.
Yeah, I've had some weird login issues, too. Nothing serious; just had to login more than once occasionally. Hopefully it's temporary; I think I recall something similar happening the last time MoFo switched servers.
Yikes, wow, that last shout posted fast, though. Scared me half to death.
Aha, yes, I was wondering. And for some reason I just had to log in to post in the shoutbox. Even though I was logged in already while posting to a thread just now. Wacky times ahead.
jrap is Rob, in case anyone was wondering.
Indeed Sammy. Was that the reason I kept on getting a 'server was reset while page was loading' warning thing?
Holy frijoles!! There are tons and tons of guests here, all of a sudden!! Erm. HI, GUESTS!!